I encountered
a strange tribeman today.It is often difficult to see very far in the
dense forest, and he was upon me before I knew it.He danced circles around me, chanting and
shaking his spear.I think he wanted
some of the coconuts I had acquired close to the riverbank.Well, he wasn’t going to get them!Fortunately for me, I know exactly how to
handle these sorts of tribemen.I slowly reached for my pack and drew out my
sketchpad and pencil.Barely noticing,
he kept dancing in circles and chanting his evil curses.I quickly drew a caricature which resembled
the tribesman in every detail but one.I
held up the paper and showed it to him.He abruptly stopped dancing and gibbering and, finally, got a good look
at what I had been doing.His eyes grew
wide, and his mouth dropped open.Before
you could say, “gotcha, tribeman!” he had turned tail
and run.You see, these tribemen believe that if a person draws them a perfect
caricature, their soul will be sucked into the very paper on which the picture
is drawn!They are then forced to live a
two-dimensional, off-white, terribly boring life in the hereafter.That is exactly what I was banking on when I
drew this tribeman’s caricature.However, as you have probably already
guessed, this tribeman had nothing whatsoever to
fear.For, you see, the caricature I
drew was missing one important detail.He was holding the spear in the other hand!HA!I
really got him!